Nevada officials back plan for western primary

Monday, June 8, 1998 | 9:07 a.m.

Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming officials will meet in November to discuss a proposed regional primary similar to the South's Super Tuesday in March.

Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, who will attend the meeting, said the states would achieve greater clout if they band together and hold primary elections the same day.

"The idea is to get the candidates to at least come out and listen to our issues," he said. "It's been estimated that as a bloc, the western states would have as many, if not more, delegates than California. That's what's at stake."

Gov. Bob Miller said a regional primary would force presidential candidates to devote more attention to western issues.

"Although western states make up more than 60 percent of the land mass of the United States, attention to western issues on the national political scale is far below that level," he said.

Fred Lokken, a political scientist at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, said Nevada would have everything to gain under the plan.

"In the presidential-election cycle, Nevada is completely irrelevant ... with its relatively small population and electorate," he said.

"Certainly the South realized when they created Super Tuesday, that there's strength in numbers. There's something to be said for a regional agenda."

The five western states are considering a late-February date for the regional primary. The proposal would keep New Hampshire's mid-February primary as the season opener.

Attending the November meeting from Nevada will be Hettrick, Secretary of State Dean Heller; state Sens. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, and Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas; Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas; and Assembly Democratic Caucus executive director Lyndsey Jydstrup.

Hettrick said Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado have committed to the regional primary, and Montana and Arizona could follow.

Oregon and Washington have not agreed to the proposal, saying their Pacific Rim concerns don't jibe with Mountain West interests.

Nevada's participation in a regional primary would have to be approved by the 1999 Legislature.